The Dallas Morning News' historic former headquarters building in downtown Dallas is being sold to a partnership that includes the region's biggest commercial builder.Developer KDC is paying $33 million for the 7.2-acre site at Young and Houston streets. It's partnering with Dallas restaurateur and businessman Mike Hoque in the deal.

Dallas-based KDC has built millions of square feet of suburban office space for companies including Toyota, State Farm Insurance, JPMorgan Chase and Liberty Mutual Insurance.

The pending sale of the vacant office building and surrounding campus comes a year after The News relocated its offices to the historic Dallas Public Library building on Commerce Street downtown.

KDC and partner Hoque Global - who together made a pitch for Amazon's coveted second headquarters on a building site near Dallas City Hall - have signed a contract to acquire the property and are set to close before the end of the year.

The News' former headquarters is next door to the Dallas Convention Center and across the street from the rail transit hub at Union Station.

The News' parent company A.H. Belo Corporation has been hunting a buyer since last year for the 69-year-old newspaper offices and former printing plant building at 508 Young St.

The company talked with several potential buyers before reaching the agreement with KDC and Hoque Global.

"From the standpoint of the city's well being, this is a wonderful outcome," said A.H. Belo CEO Robert Decherd. "These guys know the city, care about the city and are here for the long term.

"Compared to the other scenarios, this is a great win for Dallas," he said. "And our company realizes the proceeds it deserves from its historic investment in this site. "

A.H. Belo previously said it expected to receive at least $30 million for the property.

Dallas architects GFF evaluated the old newspaper headquarters to study how parts of the structure - designed by noted architect George Dahl - could be repurposed in a new development. KDC and Hoque Global have also been working with the architects.

The News property is one of the largest development sites in downtown Dallas with the potential for several million square feet of construction.

"From our perspective, the southwest quadrant is the next part of downtown's evolution," Decherd said.

Officials with KDC and Hoque Global would not talk about the transaction saying they don't comment on pending transactions.

The property purchase will give KDC and Hoque Global almost 30 acres of real estate on downtown's south side, making them one of the largest owners in the central business district.

KDC and Hoque Global hired world-renowned Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects to design a more than 8 million-square-foot development for their 20-acre property on Canton Street near Dallas City Hall.

KDC is just finishing up a 10-story office project in the Epic development in Dallas' Deep Ellum district.

The company is best known for its $1.5 billion mixed-use CityLine project in Richardson. KDC also is a partner in the $3 billion Legacy West development in Plano.

Hoque Global has investments in multiple downtown-area properties. The company has operations in the restaurant, hospitality, event planning, technology, logistics and transportation businesses.

KDC......lets hope they do something really great with this property. A new high rise on the south rim of downtown would be awesome and anything that would flood that part of downtown with new residents.

I think Hunt's own that land now... like, around the time Hunt got control of Union Station, or shortly after that, they swapped Lot E by the convention center for the former Reunion Arena land.

I think the city still owns Lot E, or it may have be gifted to Matthews Southwest or Texas Central Railroad (MattSouth associate) as part of a office, retail, hotel convention entertainment mixed use complex banking on the high speed rail station.

Well, that means Hoque global and KDC have locked up most of the south end of Downtown Dallas. With them owning the land near City Hall and this site they have bookends for the Convention Center. This land makes sense in that its located near mass transit, high-speed rail, highway access.

Makes me wonder do they actually have any real plans or just trying to nail down options for future potentially, possibly, maybe if the wind blows right we could build something there.

Depending on their cost of capital it could have still been a reasonable bet even without the immediate HQ2 turnaround; $33MM for 7.2 acres in downtown Dallas with or without HSR terminus ought to compare favorably to 2.1 acres Duke Energy bought in uptown Charlotte for $27.5MM, just for another example transaction being announced this week.

Thankfully, he said the Rock of Truth is staying and his wording makes it sounds like they are going to incorporate the George Dahl designed part of the complex into the redevelopment. This sounds promising and I hope he does right by this. It looks like he will.

Do we think he has some undisclosed office tenant? Ray Washburne could have found someone willing to sign on to some level of commitment enough to make it worth getting a phase 1 moving. Paying your own money upfront and promising more later seems like they are confident on an early stage development and expect to fill up the project once it's going vertical. Banks around here don't lend unless a lead tenant signs on but also lead tenants around here have also not been willing to sign unless a project is started. In this case, he could get it going enough to get later stage tenants interested. Maybe the High-Speed Rail group is looking at signing on to some space?

In either capacity, if this even starts we are finally seeing some stuff happen south of Jackson with the Farmers Market East Quarter tower planned to start and something on this end might finally trigger more redevelopment heading towards I-30.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Do we think he has some undisclosed office tenant? Ray Washburne could have found someone willing to sign on to some level of commitment enough to make it worth getting a phase 1 moving. Paying your own money upfront and promising more later seems like they are confident on an early stage development and expect to fill up the project once it's going vertical. Banks around here don't lend unless a lead tenant signs on but also lead tenants around here have also not been willing to sign unless a project is started. In this case, he could get it going enough to get later stage tenants interested. Maybe the High-Speed Rail group is looking at signing on to some space?

In either capacity, if this even starts we are finally seeing some stuff happen south of Jackson with the Farmers Market East Quarter tower planned to start and something on this end might finally trigger more redevelopment heading towards I-30.

I feel the same way. I think he has something up his sleeve to have so much confidence and ideas for this complex. I think it's likely we could see the warehouse type buildings torn down, parking garage torn down, and new highrises that incorporate the main part of the George Dahl structure with the Rock of Truth.

It's refreshing to see so much the CBD and CBD-adjacent real estate once considered untouchable becoming recognized for the prime location it is. Probably the biggest barrier to unlocking value on the east and south side of the CBD has been the local big boys' strangle hold; only recently has Dallas investment potential elevated beyond regional awareness.

As developer, what has washeburne accomplished? I ask because this area requires special attention to detail. The area is really cut off from different angles and needs to have some stitching required to make it feel connected. This guy makes me nervous.

Not sure if anyone saw the Candy's Dirt article on the sale but there was this additional tidbit:

"No word yet on what Washburne intends to do with the building, although he told the Dallas Morning News that he valued the George Dahl building (he owns four structures designed by the architect), and would work it into any plans, which may include a hotel, apartments, and working space."

The DMN parcel sits in the middle of a lot of underutilized pieces of land between Union Station and the future HSR site. You've also got all the Reunion arena land and parking lots/garage, the parking lot next to Union Station, the old WFAA facilities, and then that wasteland on the other side of the Reunion garage. If you assembled all these parcels, you could practically build a new mini city that would be attached to Union Station, the convention center, and the new HSR station.

All those areas were proposed as a major Downtown Dallas Amazon campus in previous renderings. We will see if anything as significant happens with even 50% of those various parcels. If the High-Speed Rail starts moving towards actual construction start date then I think we will see even more publicly visible movement to redevelop this side of Downtown.

One of the Hunt Family companies owns all or most of the land between their hotel and observation tower and Jefferson Blvd Viaduct -- I'm not sure if Hunt owns that parking garage or not. Hunt used to own the convention center parking lot E, but traded the city for the former Reunion Arena land.

You know what would be badass on this piece of land? A freakin' CASINO! Can you imagine? Winstar Dallas, MGM Grand Dallas, Horseshoe Dallas! Dallas would benefit so much from casinos. Plus, I wouldn't have to drive all the way to Oklahoma anymore. Just a thought.

Chris Sapphire wrote:You know what would be badass on this piece of land? A freakin' CASINO! Can you imagine? Winstar Dallas, MGM Grand Dallas, Horseshoe Dallas! Dallas would benefit so much from casinos. Plus, I wouldn't have to drive all the way to Oklahoma anymore. Just a thought.

Texas will legalize pot before it allows gambling but yes, it would be the perfect spot for a casino resort hotel.

I think this may simply be how the urban development game is being played in Dallas now. In the prior era, developers like Crow and Hines did one site at a time. But now we have developers who buy a neighborhood and develop multiple sites over a period of years, with Harwood being the archetype.

The same strategy is playing out now in the East Quarter, Deep Ellum, Main St., Midtown, Trinity Groves, Design District, South Side, etc. Perhaps Washburne simply sees a large, preassembled urban site with rail on the way, where he can run projects for years to come. Barbier-Mueller been at it in Harwood for 30 years.

Could it be possible this would be used as the new campus for El Centro College? Maybe the County will build up the educational facilities and Washburne can build the rest?? Residential units, mixed use office and retail? If the area is as desolate as some say, the influx of thousands of students can really add dynamism that spills over to other surrounding areas. Hopefully, Union Station.

NdoorTX wrote:Could it be possible this would be used as the new campus for El Centro College? Maybe the County will build up the educational facilities and Washburne can build the rest?? Residential units, mixed use office and retail? If the area is as desolate as some say, the influx of thousands of students can really add dynamism that spills over to other surrounding areas. Hopefully, Union Station.

When the news broke that El Centro was not just upgrading their current campus but looking for a new one, this site was the first thing I thought of. Very interesting idea but do you think it works with a community college? I would much rather have seen one of the public universities build a downtown campus (UNT/Titche-Goittinger notwithstanding).

NdoorTX wrote:Could it be possible this would be used as the new campus for El Centro College? Maybe the County will build up the educational facilities and Washburne can build the rest?? Residential units, mixed use office and retail? If the area is as desolate as some say, the influx of thousands of students can really add dynamism that spills over to other surrounding areas. Hopefully, Union Station.

When the news broke that El Centro was not just upgrading their current campus but looking for a new one, this site was the first thing I thought of. Very interesting idea but do you think it works with a community college? I would much rather have seen one of the public universities build a downtown campus (UNT/Titche-Goittinger notwithstanding).

Yes, if they are thinking big. It is supposed to be a tech incubator after all.

For a big site like this, you would have expected to see zoning applications and approvals before closing. Some contingencies need to be mitigated before jumping into an endeavor of this scale. Kinda strange that that didn't happen... or, did we just not see it?

muncien wrote:For a big site like this, you would have expected to see zoning applications and approvals before closing. Some contingencies need to be mitigated before jumping into an endeavor of this scale. Kinda strange that that didn't happen... or, did we just not see it?

Could it be that washeburne has teamed up with Hoque Global Interests and KDC and has the Amazon site approvals from the would be HQ2 site?

Chris Sapphire wrote:You know what would be badass on this piece of land? A freakin' CASINO! Can you imagine? Winstar Dallas, MGM Grand Dallas, Horseshoe Dallas! Dallas would benefit so much from casinos. Plus, I wouldn't have to drive all the way to Oklahoma anymore. Just a thought.

It would, IIRR, have to come to a statewide vote, like with the Lottery and horse racing. The big mouths in Austin have a fit every time one of the little Native tribes want to do something on their land that remotely resembles gambling. I have a feeling the OK and LA gambling interests don't want the TX $$$$$ to go away, very likely the reason no one in the legislature has called for any kind of action or voting. As long as that is (possibly?) the case, we'll still see visitors from TX, with their $$$$$, hopping the 2 borders. Also, the competition for big-name musical and other talent, will be a factor. So, it's more than likely you'll see more of I-35 or US 75, rather than downtown Dallas, when you want to go play.

I've always thought the area where all the strip clubs are might make a good place for some Casinos. I couldn't really tell you specifically where to put them, but, given the current state of the area, it would be considered an improvement for many, and you could have some convenient access to the airport for people who want to travel into town just for that.

Tidbits on what Ray Washburne has planned for the old DMN buildings...

“We are going to keep the existing building and convert it into a 200- to 300-room boutique business hotel, completely saving the exterior character of the building,” Washburne told me.

He pointed out that the buildings (there are two) are very close to the Dallas Convention Center, which has virtually no entertainment district or activities within walking distance. Washburne wants to give the center a huge asset by creating a thriving district: the hotel, restaurants, possibly a Gilley’s or Billy Bob’s venue.

In other words, a lively, fun place for conventioneers to hang out, just down the street.

“There are no activities at the convention center’s front door,” he said. “On the back end is the Omni, which is doing very well. Then there is the back end of the convention center, where buses drop people off. It’s kind of uninspiring.”

I think what's important to point out is that the restaurants in front of the Omni are dead most of the time. Which is why the hotel took over management of them so they can better optimize staff. Hopefully, Ray can save them by instilling some more regular customers. Resturants down there don't get local customers just conventioneers and they need some steady customers.

After Ray gets something done with his parcels we can start talking about the parking lot in front of the Omni as part of 400 Record Street and the US Department of Labor property. Both parcels that are like a berlin wall to spreading successful traffic between the Convention Center and the rest of Downtown.

I wish the parking lot across the street where he street car stops had some sort of residential. I sometimes dream of buying Union Station (anyone got any money? haha)and turning it into a food hall and small shops. It can be a place to grab a bite before getting on DART to the AAC, State Fair, Airport, Amtrak, or the future HSR to Houston. There's no reason it couldn't be successful. This whole area could be filled with new apartments or condo towers and really complete the cedars/oak cliff/ downtown fabric. Just a dream though...

So quick question and I wanted to see who knows but what about the old WFAA studios building? A few years ago they consolidated the broadcast studio to the Victory Park location but I don't believe the studio was a part of the DMN sale since Belo and the DMN were separate companies at that point.

They still have Ch.8's main studio and offices at their Young Street building. I don't think they have anything at Victory Park other than the studio there. When Hurricane Harvey hit a couple of years ago and pretty much washed out KHOU (the Houston station that Belo co-owned with Ch.8, now they are Tegna stations), it took Ch.8's Young Street control room, newsroom, and satellite uplinks to keep KHOU going until they could get other facilities together.

I imagine channel 8 will sell as soon as development succeeds at the DMN site. They don't do broadcasts from the Downtown location anymore. I imagine since Channel 8 is no longer locally owned new owners would just as well move them to another site if they felt they could make a good buck on moving into newer facilities somewhere else.